Past Sins: An Uncanny Kingdom Urban Fantasy (The Dark Lakes Series Book 3) by Matthew Stott & David Bussell

Author:Matthew Stott & David Bussell [Stott, Matthew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Genre Reader
Published: 2017-10-11T23:00:00+00:00

16

I parked the Uncanny Wagon a few hundred metres before the turn that funnelled drivers into Combe.

‘I told you,’ said Eva, after I’d finished filling her in about Maya absconding from the hospital, ‘they need to offer a decent selection of alcoholic drinks.’

‘I’ll bring it up when I put in for a new mop.’

Keeping low, we skirted a tall hedgerow, crouching as the first building hoved into view.

‘What’s the plan of attack here, exactly?’ I asked.

‘I’m not really a plan in advance sort of woman.’

‘This is shocking news. Behold my face of shockedness.’

I winced as Eva’s finger jabbed me in the ribs.

‘I was thinking we’d wander around, maybe break into a house or two, poke around a bit, and see if we can find some clues that tell us what’s going on with this place, and why the twats have been dropping in on isolated farms and talking out the inhabitants.’

We shuffled forward, reaching the edge of Combe’s village green. There was no street lighting, and none of the houses had light glowing from behind closed curtains, everyone long since in bed. Combe was slumbering, and the dark was all that there was to greet us.

‘Okay, which house should we try?’

Eva licked her finger and held it in the air, then spun and pointed at Paul Travers’ home. ‘Might as well start there.’

We began hustling across the green toward the house.

‘What happens if we’re caught?’ I asked. ‘This may come as a surprise, but I have little, and by little I mean no, experience of breaking and entering a person’s home while they sleep upstairs.’

‘Don’t worry, I’ve done this a million times.’

‘Bit worrying, but keep going.’

‘We’ll be in and out like ghosts,’ said Eva. ‘No one will even realise we’ve been here. Trust me, love, I’ve got this.’

And that’s when the lights in every house turned on and we froze like escaped prisoners bathed in a spotlight.

‘Bugger,’ said Eva.

The front door to each house opened, and the occupants stepped out in unison.

‘I’ll take your bugger and raise you a bollocks,’ I said.

Eva straightened up, somehow regaining her nonchalant composure as I spun in little, panicked circles, attempting to keep all the residents of Combe in view at the same time.

‘Hey, freaky, possessed people of Combe,’ said Eva, giving them all a hearty wave. ‘Me and this lanky twat have rumbled you.’

The residents said nothing, their faces hidden by the bright glow from their homes backlighting them. Which was more than a little unnerving.

‘The silent treatment’s wasted on us,’ said Eva, pulling out her tobacco tin and retrieving a pre-rolled smoke from inside. She lit it with a click of her fingers and popped it between her lips. ‘I’m Eva Familiar, and that’s Janto the warlock, maybe you’ve heard of us. Or whoever’s in control of you has.’

‘There’s someone in control?’ I said.

‘There’s always someone in control. An original piece of shit who enslaved this backwards lot. Am I right? Stay ominously silent and still if I am.’

The residents of Combe stayed ominously silent and still.

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